I am sure I read somewhere that they defecate in the hole after they have drawn blood and that is what causes the irritation. That does not sound as if they are particularly worried about being regarded as annoying, in fact it feels like they see it as a bonus.
That sounds completely made up. Why would they do that?
I definitely had that as vaguely factual, I thought heavy from blood they lightened the load before flying off and the hole was a too tempting target plus they enjoyed the symbolism. I asked ChatGPT and it said it was made up and was quite sneering about it so I suppose that is that.
My understanding is that when they bite you, they also inject a bit of anticoagulant to prevent clotting as they suck blood out. The foreign material creates an allergic reaction that itches.
I don't think there would be much of an evolutionary advantage to irritating your victim until they start a pesticidal war against you and your kind.
They just seemed to have the correct attitude to do it anyway.
If I remember correctly, mosquito mouth/tip is so especially made. That it does not cause any pain when it pokes through the skin. Some scientist even manage to use that to create needles that mimic the same behavior.
They have! For the most part you don't even notice mosquitoes biting you until after they're long gone, the part that itches is from the mosquitoes saliva that is left behind! They have evolved to the point that you should never even feel them sticking their proboscis into you so if you actually catch one biting you it's probably because something went wrong or you just happened to see it land
Does vary by mosquito species but yeah for the most part.
Alpine mosquitoes with shorter seasons tend to have swarming strategy, they're loud and you notice when they land on you. It's just that there's about 1-200 of them flying about you so lots will still be successful. These ones mostly don't spread disease but they ruin a hike.
The sneakiest ones are in the tropics and are the species that spread malaria and other disease.
If only they evolved to not emit high pitch irritating noise.
If you're aware enough, you can feel one landing on you. Easier to do if you're aware there's one in the room and you try to focus. No real way for them to evolve around that.
You only feel the ones that you can feel. The goddamn ninja mosquitoes permeate the air we breathe. They're constantly feeding on us — sapping our life force — and we never even notice.
If you'd ever been really swarmed by mosquitoes or lived in a place where they are ever present you'd not be asking this question.
they have. mostly you don't feel the bites until afterwards
The mosquito likely evolved to try, but the body evolves to defend just the same. Your irritation is your own body's immune response after all.
Biological arms race
Evolution doesn't work that way. They don't evolve X because of Y. They develop essentially random mutations, and the ones that make them fitter for survival get passed on to their offspring. They don't get to decide that they don't want you to itch and then evolve that ability.
I meant as the ones that have mutations that cause them to itch get whacked, the remaining ones that dont get to pass on this trait to their offspring,creating a generation of itchless bugs, not that this mosquito one day decides to evolve a non itching bite because he thinks it might benefit his bloodline.
The itch doesn't begin until well after the female mosquito gets her food and leaves, so what reproductive advantage does it give to that specific mosquito over the others to make the itch not happen at all? The answer is "none".
When I start itching from a bite, I'll go on a killing spree and the one that bit me is most likely to meet its demise. But maybe that's just me
Animals don't do this, and humans are not the only prey for mosquitos. Also humans live in enclosed spaces which are hard for mosquitos to escape, which is only a few thousands years old, and evolution usually takes more time.
That makes sense
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
